January 29th, 2014 – To Hear the Music: A documentary film about the pipe organ construction at Harvard’s Memorial Church

We will present the documentary film To Hear the Music, with an introduction by David Griesinger

Featured Speaker:

David Griesinger is a physicist who works in the field of sound and music. He developed one of the first digital reverberation devices, became a principal scientist at Lexicon, conducted research into the perception and measurement of the acoustical properties of concert halls and opera houses, and is the designer of the LARES reverberation enhancement system. David has concentrated on the neurology of the inner ear, making models that emulate the ear’s amazing ability to separate independent musical sources, voices in cocktail parties, and speech in noise.

Description:

A new Fisk organ has been recently installed in the rear balcony of Harvard’s Memorial Church. The new organ fills the church with more volume of sound than the Fisk opus 47, installed in Appleton Chapel in 1967. David Griesinger will introduce the film and follow with a discussion of how venue acoustics and case design affect the sound of Opus 47 and the historic North German organs. Charles Fisk pointed out to Griesinger how the German organs put the bright reeds and mixtures in flat cases, no more than about 2’ deep, with little or no obstruction to the hall. The result was a brilliant, cutting kind of sound that pierces the heart.